Political Parties and Elections in Canada

D Brown St Francis Xavier University

Pol Sci 222 Winter term 2013

Political Parties

• The role of parties in the political system• The brokerage model in Canada• Is the party’s role declining?

Seven Functions of Political Parties(John Meisel)

• Parties integrate citizens into the political system• They develop policy• They recruit leaders (“elites”) • They help to organize Parliament into clear roles

of government and opposition• They help voters to structure their choices• They organize public opinion around ideology or

sets of political values• They aggregate interests into a larger

consensus

Theories of Party Support

• Traditional model: allegiances based on specific social cleavages….religion, ethnicity, language, class, etc.

• Brokerage model: collections of allegiances with convergence to the centre

• Rational choice: voters choose each time on the merits of their self-interests

The Canadian Brokerage Model

• Arises in large part due to Single Member Plurality electoral system.

• Roots in Macdonald’s successful but necessary coalitions of moderate reformers and Conservatives – and both French and English

• Later….Liberals and Conservatives become “omnibus parties” (similar to Republican and Democrat in USA)

• Brokerage parties try to bridge regional and linguistic divides– i.e. the party is an instrument of national unity and integration

Challenges to the Brokerage Model

• Break-away and new parties based on class and other economic cleavages …since First World War

• E.g…parties for Farmers, Labour, the CCF, Social Credit, NDP, Greens

• Regional or “national” movements or parties…Maritime Rights, Progressives, Bloc populaire, Reform, Bloc québécois

Challenges to the Brokerage Model,

1993 election • Progressive-Conservative Party vote declines

dramatically, and party wins only 2 seats• Bloc québécois (Quebec only) and Reform (west

only) take 2nd and 3rd place in seats.• Liberals were only “brokerage” party left, and for

next 3 elections were safe from credible challenge.

• Two questions posed:– Could the right re-unite? – Why is the NDP not a successful brokerage party?

Restoration of Brokerage Politics?• 1999: Canadian Alliance formed out of Reform

party, Stockwell Day elected leader, but unable to convince many Progressive Conservative voters to join.

• 2003 the Progressive Conservative Party merges with Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party. Harper elected first leader.

• 2004, 2006, 2008 elections: three minority parliaments….what does this say about brokerage politics?

• 2011: Conservative majority, NDP Official opposition: a stable recipe for continued brokerage model?

Decline of Party Role

• Parties no longer very important in determining policy

• Leaders dominant in a television age• A more independent media than in the

past• Interest groups and social movements

define political identity and community more precisely

Future of Parties…

• Would change a lot if electoral system changed …i.e. to a proportional system

• Electing Senators might help reinvigorate party life

• Municipal-level party development?• The party that can attract the youth vote

could transform the system

Party websites

• http://www.conservative.ca• http://www.liberal.ca• http://www.ndp.ca• http://www.blocquebecois.org